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1) What was your inspiration for this project?Following Domestic’s “modus operandi” and working as a creative laboratory, we try to focus on new visualization methods. There was a significant evolution between the first project -where we worked two-dimensionally- and the last one. It was conceptually designed to take place in one of the rooms in the Moritz factory, an old beer factory remodeled under the instructions of Jean Nouvel. You can imagine what a challenge it was for us!

We were interested in translating votes into a piece of work that had a relevant presence in the. Our intention was to generate a dynamic data stream that was reordered and created a tridimensional graphic—which was a literal bar chart.

What was your inspiration for this project?
I personally just wanted a way to collect what I thought were important pieces of advice or skills I’ve picked up that have helped me through my life. I’ve always liked the design aesthetic of those big family health guidebooks, so I drew inspiration from that and wanted to create one for life.

In this series, we’ll look deeper into some of the projects on Behance.net that were especially admired in our community. Katie Tonkovitch is a San Francisco based designer. Her other projects include branding for San Francisco dive bar, The Makeout Room as well as timeline based packaging for those trekking through the Himalayas. We spoke with her about her recent project, Mend.

What was your inspiration for this project?Most of my projects have an element of sustainability to them. The final form was both inspired and limited by existing within those parameters. I think the creative challenge of
balancing aesthetics and function, of striving for both beauty and reusability, was a lot of what made this project successful.

The limited materials I chose drove the design to a high degree. One of the first things I did was hunt down the reusable containers and recycled papers, and make the decision that I was only going to use black ink. Discovering what typefaces and design elements played nicely within those parameters was a large part of my inspiration. For instance, the choice to use colored thread to color-code the different kits was born out of the fact that I limited myself to a single color of ink.

Can you describe your process in creating this project?The design brief was the primary challenge. This was a fairly open-ended student project, so I really wanted to have a fully fleshed-out concept before I even began sketching. I wanted to do something in the world of sustainability, and spent considerable time brainstorming about how buying a new collection of stuff could possibly be a sustainable act. It then occurred to me that if that stuff helped you mend what you already had, it would be preventing you from buying things you didn’t need. The driving concept became: Don’t buy more stuff; mend what you have.

In this series, we’ll look deeper into some of the projects on Behance.net that were especially admired in our community. Coming Soon is a Belgian based design and branding studio. Their other projects include chalk-drawing branding for Jameson Whiskey as well as an exploration of what goes into producing a 3-D Comic.We spoke with them about her recent project, Emotion Series, a collection of expressive portraits for a cultural center.

What was your inspiration for this project?
One of our clients is a cultural center in Belgium and we did a full rebranding for them, from logo to magazine and website. For over 3 years we have been doing the campaign images—the concept is culture with impact . Every year we make a new series of 5 images. This year we wanted to work with pure emotions: emotions people feel when they go to the cultural center during a concert or performance.

“For over 3 years we have been doing the campaign images—the concept is culture with impact . Every year we make a new series of 5 images. This year we wanted to work with pure emotions: emotions people feel when they go to the cultural center during a concert or performance”

Can you describe your process in creating this project?
Since we were working with emotions we had to find nice characters. We did a casting, where we selected 30 people from a group of 200. We shot the photographs over three days. We even picked up people from the street in the end, like they do on street castings.Continue reading…

In this series, we’ll look deeper into some of the projects on Behance.net that were especially admired in our community. Martin Oberhäuser is a Hamburg, Germany based information and interface designer. After working with various large agencies and freelancing, Oberhäuser founded the oberhaeuser.info design studio in 2011. Oberhäuser’s passion for data visualization is apparent in projects that range from encyclopedia infographics to an app that monitors and tracks online mentions. We spoke with him about his recent project, nextr, an iPhone app that helps users navigate German public transit by providing intuitive, essential information and directions.

What was your inspiration for this project?My inspiration was initially personally motivated. I use public transportation services in Germany pretty frequently and I was never satisfied with the available transportation guidance apps. I felt like there was a lot of room for improvement, especially for heavy transit users like myself. Most people I know that use these apps are familiar with the public transportation systems in their cities. They only need quick access to some important use cases, for example “when does the next train depart from the station closest to my home?” So I focused on this user group and provided this easy access combined with the ability to drill deeper for more information if necessary.Can you describe your process in creating this project?I decided to play around with some initial ideas and concepts for a more intuitive app. After a while I came up with a structure based around the current user position on a map and easy access to nearby stations.

I approached my iOS developer Marcus Wermuth with this concept and some initial layouts and asked if he’d be interested in and capable of developing the app. Fortunately, he was excited to work with me on making this concept a reality. Of course, we had other running client projects and had to earn some money, so it took us a while to reach a working prototype, and then a fully functional app.
This project continues to be pretty challenging because we are working with real time data and geolocation. The real challenge, however, was to initially achieve the right amount of simplification—asking “what information is really relevant for the user and what is our main target audience?”

Did anything interesting happen as a result of the success of this project? (fans contacting you, job opportunities, blogs picking it up, etc).

We used Behance as the main tool to advertise the launch of our app and the reactions have been phenomenal. A few hours after we published the project many blogs were writing about it and it soon became the second best selling app on the German App Store. We are also getting many interview requests from blogs and tech magazines. I can’t say exactly how big the impact of Behance was, but it definitely played a big role.

What was your inspiration for this project?The Trofana Alpin was the very first hotel in the winter sports resort of Ischgl (a small village in Austria). The hotel is family-owned and builds the foundation of the von der Thannen family history and tradition—a fact that turned this project into something personal and very close to our hearts.

Can you describe your process in creating this project?The client emphasized their family history and how everything started out with a humble Bed & Breakfast. We were also provided with a number of historical items related to the von der Thannen family history, like an old photo archive. After rethinking the project we came up with a branding concept that referred to the origins of their family business. We redesigned the look and feel of the brand with a focus on the von der Thannen family’s exemplary ability to balance tradition with modern convenience and understated luxury.

Did anything interesting happen as a result of the success of this project? (fans contacting you, job opportunities, blogs picking it up, etc).Yes, many people have contacted us, for very different reasons, because of our projects on Behance. Some have questions concerning type, papers, photography etc., while some very nice ones simply get in touch to tell us how much they like our work. Ultimately though, it turned out that Behance is a really good platform for receiving serious requests.

We were also lucky to get an immediate feature on Design made in Germany an important German design blog. Also Page Online, one of Germany’s graphic design magazines, featured us within an article. We are really thankful that a lot of other bloggers helped us by sharing our work in recent years. That was more than we could have hoped for.

In this series, we’ll look deeper into some of the projects on Behance.net that were especially admired in our community. Peter Stults creates movie posters reimagined for another time and place – like, what would the “Spring Breakers” poster look like if it starred James Dean? Although when Stults first released his work to his personal networks, the response was “like crickets in an awkward silence,” he became an overnight sensation on Behance, going completely viral. He was even recently commissioned to create a movie poster for an upcoming Paul Schrader (of Taxi Driver) movie.

What was your inspiration for this project?
Since 1999 I’ve been playing with the idea of “what-if” oriented concepts. It first started with making movie posters for books I was reading. Then I was doing posters based on concepts – like what if you had Brad Pitt and Keanu Reeves in some religious thriller? The next step in evolution was making posters for movies featuring a star who was going to be cast, but didn’t get up getting the role. For example, Jack Nicholson as the father in “A Christmas Story” or Tom Cruise as Iron Man. Friends of mine later forwarded me the work of Sean Hartter who crafted the “different era” concept, which greatly inspired my What-if poster making process.

Can you describe your process in creating this project?
Much of it is brainstorming. I’ll be on the subway or walking around, and I first think of a movie, then think of the setting and genre, then the actors. Once I’ve got the concept, I loosely sketch out the poster’s style, thinking about things like horizontal or vertical orientation (depends on the Era). Once sketched out, I look for photographs and images of the actors. I have a collection of pulp fiction books and old magazines and newspapers that I use to derive texture, aged effects and reviewing color spectrum and type face. Most of my posters will start in Photoshop, but I incorporate Illustrator, scanning things in, and even hand-drawing some parts.

Did you expect it to be as popular as it’s been on The Behance Network?
I was absolutely not at all ready for the popularity. I had first passed some of these posters around on Flickr and Facebook and it was the equivalent of crickets in an awkward silence situation. I remember being super proud of my Avatar, Fifth Element and Inception posters, but barely got any “likes.” So, when creating my Behance profile, I did not think anything of them. I was crossing fingers my illustration-based work would get some traction.

Did anything interesting happen as a result of the success of this project? (fans contacting you, job opportunities, blogs picking it up, etc).
When the posters went viral, a whole wave of things took place. The famous fashion store Colette, based in Paris, France, contacted me about doing a show on the posters. I had never done an art show before, so my first show being an international one at a well-known fashion store was not too bad.

Then, I was contacted to create the promotional poster for the upcoming movie “The Canyons,” which is directed by Paul Schrader (writer of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), screenplay by Bret Easton Ellis (author of American Psycho and Less Than Zero) and starring Lindsay Lohan and adult entertainment star James Deen. So, my first professional movie poster offering being “The Canyons” was pretty phenomenal.

There has been a wave of freelance work I’ve been a part of that have resulted in some cool projects. I’ve been covered in various blogs and online news sources (Huffington Post, Elle, Slate, Premiere, Fast Company, Business Insider, Yahoo Movies, BuzzFeed, Daily What, Flavorpill, Paste Magazine, Laughing Squid and many more). And the results haven’t slowed. I do a “What If” poster each month for the French movie magazine “So Film.” I’m working on a show in England right now and recently I got contacted by a gallery owner in Brooklyn, all for the “What If” posters.

In this series, we’ll look deeper into some of the projects on Behance.net that were especially admired in our community. Fred Nerby designed a Facebook redesign concept that has absolutely exploded on the web – over 300,000 views, 15,000 appreciations and counting! He streamlined the experience, adding responsive panels, splitting the News Feed into two columns, for example. Take a deeper look into how this was created below!

What was your inspiration for this project?As funny as it may sound, the project was not actually inspired by visuals or UI work created by other platforms, but more so a deeper understanding and a personal interest in user behavior. For a while I’ve been researching Systematic Design and what it actually represents and how it’s best applied in the digital space because it’s changed the making of media in the modern world and also how digital agencies are now working.

Understanding behavior and the psychological success behind a platform such as Facebook is crucial before you get in to the creation or execution of design. People around the world are already connected on a personal level with the platform (or the brand that is Facebook) for many different reasons; main factor is that it’s fulfilling a need in people that wasn’t there a few years ago. If you understand the power of systematic thinking then there are ways of drawing that emotional connection out of people with clever design that will make the experience even more powerful and engaging for the user; and that is where it all started.

Can you describe your process in creating this project?First off, when dealing with a platform such as Facebook, which is heavily focused on a suite of behaviors you need to get an understanding of how to actually design for that. The process of thinking is very different from how people have worked in the past at more traditional agencies. It’s important to understand that most traditional agencies are coming from a pure narrative space where the idea is to interrupt you to think of a brand you haven’t thought about and connect you through a story. Their greatest challenge in the modern world of media right now is to recognize that you can be creative within “Systematic Design”.

For example, the world is embracing the products and media invented in places such as the Silicon Valley (Apple) and the innovation that has been driving such places forward is NOT the innovation of narrative, it’s the innovation and more importantly the understanding of systems and behavior. And today; that has become a creative discipline! Companies like Apple and Facebook are focusing on creating platforms and it’s a new world where you “invent media to frame behavior”, which in itself means that the production is now creative and your relationship with the “making” is very different. If you want your UI to be successful you need to have a solid understanding of all this before you move on to architecture and design when taking on a platform.

All in all, the setup was thought through before I got into the making of design so the overall process of creating the artwork went fairly smooth with a few minor hick-­‐ ups on the way. Again, you can’t jump straight in to a design of such a project without understanding the user behavior and then try to figure things out as you go along. That will never work!